Reconditioning your brain to accept success

Have you ever looked at other people and wondered “Why are they successful?”

It’s as if some people have the Midas touch, every opportunity that comes their way they can turn to gold!

Some might say it’s pure luck while others believe that it’s because of their upbringing or connections.

These types of people will often say:

- “It’s alright for them”

- “I could be a success if I had the same opportunities”

- “Mummy and Daddy pay for everything”

But the truth is that every time we seek to bring other people down with our poisonous words, the only person that we harm is ourselves.

By diminishing other people's successes and writing them off as mere chance, luck or social standing, then in doing so, we’re telling our brains that success is for ‘other people’, ‘luckier people’, or ‘better educated people’. Success is not for us!

If we want to be a success then we must first learn to recondition our brain for success.

Your brain:

Without going deep into neuroscience. There is a part of the brain called the Reticular Activating System (RAS).

RAS acts as a filter so that the constant stream of data that comes into your brain is filtered before it’s presented to your conscious awareness.

Everything you touch, taste, smell, hear and see, is simply data that comes into the brain. Your brain can receive up to 2,000,000 bits of data at any time! Now that’s a tonne of information.

However, our conscious brain can only receive from 3 to 9 bits of data.

You don’t need to be a mathematician to recognise the HUGE difference.

You are what you focus on:

The RAS is designed to show your conscious mind stuff that you focus on the most. If you continuously focus on one thing over and over, your brain will think “Ahh, they obviously think that this is important, I’ll keep on showing it to them!”

If you focus on:

- Why am I always broke

Your brain will show you data that backs up the belief that you are broke.

If you only focus on:

- I’m just not confident

Then you’ll never be confident as your brain will only show you data that backs up this thought.

If you focus on:

- It’s all right for them…

Then your brain will keep on presenting you data that supports why it’s alright for them and why you’ll never be successful.

So, what can we do so that we can create a mind set for success?

Tip 1. Focus:

As mentioned above, your RAS is going to play a massive role in you priming your mind for success.

What we repeatedly focus on is what we become.

- Fear

- Love

- Confidence

- Success

- Pain

- Guilt

- Anxiety

and so on.

- Instead of asking “Why can’t I be successful?” Ask yourself “How can I be successful?”

- Instead of stating “Its alright for them” Ask yourself “How can I make it alright for me?”

- Instead of saying to yourself “I’m just not confident” say “I’m going to choose to be confident”

Put all of your focus on to the positive solution rather than negative problems.

Become solution focused by focusing on the positive and eliminating the negative.

Tip 2. Visualisation:

Visualisation is a very powerful way to prime our minds for success. It’s often been taught that if you want to be a success then you need to imagine yourself succeeding. Seeing yourself wining the trophy, getting the guy, having the perfect body, etc.

However, neuroscience studies show that focusing only on the end goal is just a small part of priming your mind for success.

If you want to create powerful visualisations that will reconditioning your brain for success then follow these simple steps.

Close your eyes and relax your body

Think about your ultimate goal, paint an image in your minds eye as clear as you can.

Notice what you notice, see what you can see, listen to what you can hear.

Notice how good it feels to have successfully achieved your goals!

Feel those emotions through your body, believe the images to be TRUE!!

Sit with those amazing feeling for about 30 seconds.

Next

Now cast your mind back to the here and now

Image the first challenge that you will face (procrastination, lack of knowledge, time)

See yourself getting stuck by this challenge

Once again, believe the image to be true by stepping into that image as if it was really happening.

Now… See yourself overcoming the challenge, notice how confident you are in doing so.

Imagine the same challenge, but this time you overcome it from different options

Repeatedly overcome this challenge again and again, using a different approach each time.

Take 1 action step towards the challenge that you overcome within your minds eye.

Once you’ve completed the challenge, Celebrate! Give yourself a pat on the back :)

Visualise yourself overcoming that challenges that lay ahead will have a massive positive impact on your psychology when that challenge actually arrives.

The more you mentally rehearse then stronger your mind set will become.

Tip 3. Gratitude

You may have heard of the saying “The Attitude of Gratitude”.

Well, gratitude is such an important practice for us to bring into our daily routine because it helps us to focus on all of the things that are important to us in our life.

Most of us spend our time worrying about what has been and what is yet to come. But in doing so we miss the magic moments of life.

Life is a journey and with any long car journey you arrive at your destination feeling absolutely exhausted and holding nothing but resentment for that long, tedious drive.

However, if you were to pull over, smell the flowers, take in the sights, watch the sunset, walk through the local villages, taste the local food and just enjoy each moment. Then you’ll have a completely different experience.

By keeping our heads down as we fight our way through life, we forget to stop every now and then to appreciate actually how amazing our life already is.

To practice gratitude simply grab yourself a note pad and at the end of each day, reflect on the day with rose tinted glasses.

Write down one thing that you are grateful for happening that day.

I’m grateful that:

- I have a secure job

- I have a loving partner who treats me with respect

- I have a roof over my head and nice food to eat

- I got to see the sunset tonight

Next, write down what you appreciate about the thing that you are grateful for. For example:

- I’m grateful that I got to see the sunset tonight.

- I appreciate being able to witness such beauty in nature as it makes me feel at peace.

Finally, write down the best part of your day.

The best part of my day was:

- Messing around and having fun with my friends.

- Chilling out and watching my fav TV show

- Eating a delicious meal with my partner

- Taking the dog for a walk and getting away from it all

Gratitude

Appreciation

Highlight

By focusing on these three simple steps daily you start reconditioning your brain to look for all of the wins in life. You’ll become more optimistic, positive, content and happier.

Do not underestimate the power of gratitude - if you want success, then you need to love the journey.

Summary:

Success is not something that we are born with, it’s something that is earned through patience and persistence. You can succeed at anything you want in life, but first you must prime your mind so that you are focused on what it is that you do want and to ignore everything else.

There are distractions all around you so remember to master the art of focus, visualise the challenges but most importantly, learn to love the journey.

So, until next time… Have an awesome and inspiring rest of your day!

Jeff Spires

For more top tips on how to overcome your fears of failure, success, self doubt, confidence - anything that stops you from having a calm mind and body, then head over to our Fitness, Food & Mindset membership.